I Was Voted Onto the Island

It's been quite a week and I wish I had the time to upload photos, but will do my best to describe my new home in Savaii.  I won't bore you with details of the island, since you have Google. 

I visited Pua Pua first for a few days with Lissa, a current PC volunteer.  She and her Samoan family are fabulous and I feel as if I have a new home.  Had a chance to walk across the street and swim in the lagoon a couple of times.  Also got to spend the day at the school in Sasa'ai, where Lissa teaches English and her host mom is principal.  They turned me lose to do impromptu sessions with year 7 (they taught me about rugby), year 5 (we played Simon Says and Bip, Bap, Bop) and year 1 (I read them story books in Samoan and they corrected my pronunciation.)  It was a great few days.

On Tuesday, they took me to my new school/home in Faga.  What a magnificent place!  The school has about 230 students and classes from year 1 (think first grade) to year 8.  They're fully staffed, with the largest class being 37.  I'll be co-teaching English with teachers at all grades.  It was exam week, so time with the kids was limited, but I got to play some games and get to know some of the kids at interval (recess) and everyone now knows my name.  I had the toughest speaking engagement of my life when I was asked to give an impromptu speech to introduce myself to the school.  In Samoan.  At least it was brief and I should get an A for effort.

I was given two options for housing.  One is to live on a compound with the year 1 teacher at my school.  I stayed there for the week and they were wonderful.  I lived in a fale with an 18 year old girl (who beat me soundly at gin rummy after I taught her to play) and a 21 year old girl.  The fale adjoins the "main house" where they do the cooking and hanging out.  Mom, dad and other family sleep in other fales on the property.  It is not on the beach, but only a couple minutes walk away. 

They were incredibly friendly and welcoming and in Samoa, hospitality means food.  I drank enough Koko Samoa to float a boat and was happy to do it.  That's freshly roasted cocoa beans, crushed into a chocolate paste and mixed with water and sugar.  Fabulous.  I also ate lobster, octopus, seaweed, fish, fried chicken, beef curry, pankake (think donut holes), fresh pineapple, papaya soup, taro, breadfruit, and more.  Oh, did I mention they took me out for an ice cream cone every day?  All the food was raised or caught (in the case of seafood) locally, most from the families own plantation.  Fresh and delicious.

The other housing option I was shown is a 2 bedroom cement block home, facing the beach.  It is a five minute walk from school and five minutes from the Siufaga Resort.  The view from the house is the incredible lagoon.  I've been to places like Bora Bora and Aitutaki (Cook Islands) and I know incredible lagoons.  This one is right up there and I'll be looking at it every day.

The house needs some work, but has indoor toilet/shower and the basics.  It has huge potential.

Both options have huge pros and very few cons.  I'lll be talking to the PC this afternoon about which I'll go with.  I'll post as soon as possible to let you know.

There are so many things about Samoa I want to share. 

Experiences like

Driving past a fale at 5 a.m. last Saturday.  It was completely open-air, with an overhead light on, which illuminated the four people sleeping on mats under mosquito netting.  No security locks required. 

Joining the women in Faga for an evening aerobics class, held next to the beach, by the main road.  As I was shaking my palagi booty, a full bus drove by.  I got cheers from the bus and big laughs from the other ladies.  Seems I'm the first palagi to join their group.

Hearing kids hum the song I taught them the day before and calling my name to say hello.

I couldn't be happier about spending the next two years in Savaii.  For now, it's back to language training in Sataoa.